William Shakespeare. Charles Dickens. Lauren Gunderson. Which one of these three names doesn’t belong, and why?

It’s a trick question. They all belong.

They are the three most-produced playwrights in the United States this season. (Although Dickens wasn’t a playwright, he deserves his high spot on the list because stage adaptations of his “Christmas Carol” are as ubiquitous as fruitcake in December.)

“American Theatre” magazine did the math. They exhaustively researched the plays being produced across the country this year, and added up each playwright’s total. They discounted Shakespeare and Dickens (they’d top the list every year) and declared Gunderson the winner.

On the phone from her home in San Francisco, Gunderson laughs when asked if she knows something about play-writing that other writers haven’t figured out yet. She isn’t presumptuous enough to say yes, but she does reveal a style that’s worked well for her.

“My plays tend to leave audiences with a sense of bittersweet hope,” she says. The bitter sweetness prevents the plays from becoming overly sentimental, and “the sense of hope feels necessary for audiences. I like that combination.”

Gunderson’s popularity is reflected locally. Two of her plays are being staged in Greater Boston this month. “Silent Sky,” the true story of Harvard University astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, runs Oct. 18 to Nov. 12 at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell. And the Nora Theatre Company presents her new play, “The Revolutionists,” Oct. 19 to Nov. 12, at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge.

There’s probably a reason why productions of “The Revolutionists” are popping up around the country this year. Although Donald Trump wasn’t even an orange blip on the presidential radar when Gunderson began writing the play, “The Revolutionists” now has a relevance that’s made it a popular choice of artistic directors across the country.

In “The Revolutionists,” Gunderson imagines witty, thoughtful, funny conversations between four historical women living in the midst of the French Revolution. The Dramatis Play Service offers this evocative description of the comedy on its website: “Playwright Olympe de Gouges, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen (and fan of ribbons) Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle hang out, murder Marat, and try to beat back the extremist insanity in 1793 Paris.”

Along the way, the play touches on themes of violence, activism, terrorism and feminism, as it contemplates how we can change the world.

“I was always fascinated by that time in French history,” says Gunderson, referring to the Reign of Terror. “You have these issues of justice and equality, but also this epic hypocrisy. I wrote the play long before Trump was a possibility. But it’s shocking how appropriate it is now.”

Asked if she has a soft spot for the controversial Marie Antoinette, Gunderson admits, “I do. I think that women in this world, whether they have no power or a ton of power, face pressure and judgement. I won’t say that I relate to Marie Antoinette, but I do understand her complexity.”

It’s hard to imagine a better crown for a playwright to wear than Most-Produced Playwright in the Country. Part of the explanation for her title is Gunderson’s remarkable productivity. She seems to have lost count of the plays she’s written, but it appears that “The Revolutionists” is number 20.

“A lot of my plays have been produced,” she says. “And then it snowballs. The Nora is a good example of that. This is the second play of mine that they’ve done. You build a relationship.”

The theatricality of Gunderson’s plays may also help explain their popularity. In a theater world where too often the only way you know that the play is over is because the lights go down, Gunderson favors shows that end with a bang.

The best example of that is her play “I and You.” It offers two big surprises as it draws to a close. Gunderson says her favorite and most memorable moments in the theater were watching early productions of “I and You” and hearing the audience gasp.

“You could hear grown men cry,” she says.

How can you make a feminist cry? Well, electing Donald Trump is a good start. Feminism is one of Gunderson’s favorite isms, so, at the risk of throwing the playwright into a depression, she’s asked about the fact that 53 percent of white women (and 42 percent of all women) voted for a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women.

Gunderson can’t really reconcile it, saying only that it shows “how much work feminism has to do. When you live in a patriarchy, women start to believe that their issues and perspectives should be the same as men’s. They’re not thinking like women.”

That “53 percent” number may astound some people, but not Gunderson.

“Growing up in the south,” she says, “it didn’t surprise me.”

Like the ladies of “The Revolutionists,” Gunderson is left to wonder what role art can play during a reign of terror. If it can’t change the world, maybe it can at least provide a balm.

“The theater is where I go to better comprehend the world, to find hope and to be challenged,” she says. “It’s my church.”